Hello!!

Welcome to the gofundme page for Maraschino Cherries! A short film that explores the fragility of family and struggle with drug addiction through an honest lens.

We're Black Dog Studios, a little student-led film production company in Savannah, Ga. Our goal is to raise $8,000 for Maraschino Cherries, shooting this spring, April 2026. With your help, we can reach our goal and support a very talented group of young filmmakers eager to bring this story to life! Your contributions will help us secure the very best locations, housing, equipment, and post-production expenses. If you're interested in helping us lead the next generation of filmmakers into their dream careers, consider reading the rest!

All donations are deeply appreciated, no matter the size. Seeing your support in all shapes and sizes fills us with confidence.

We're only doing this for the experience and intend to stretch every penny.

Any additional funding will be donated to an accredited charity aiding addiction recovery local to Savannah, Ga. - charity yet to be announced -

Logline:

"An aging man is forced to confront his

checkered past and current shortcomings

as a father when he takes his granddaughter

to visit her distant mother at a rehab."

Synopsis:

"As he approaches the latter years of his life, a 70-year-old Harvey

Stetland finds himself the new sole guardian of his nine-year-old

granddaughter, Jessica. Eager to bury the hatchet, Harvey takes

Jessica to reconnect with his daughter, Catherine, a heroin addict

in the slippery early stages of rehabilitation. The rocky visit tests

his relationship with his sick daughter, the trust he has in himself,

and whether or not he can continue to protect Jessica."

Director's Note:

It has both filled my heart with a great compassion and a deeply moving sadness that this scripts subject matter has been resoundingly familiar with nearly everyone who's read it. I feel that it is my responsibility to lift the crew up with me, and turn bleak circumstance into human connection.

As Black Dog Studios continues to grow, I’ve chosen to pull from real-life events inspired by my father and his firstborn daughter, my half-sister. The script is a fictional vignette based off of my real life experience of growing up in a family with ever-present complications of heroin addiction. Before I could understand the statistics of opiates that consumes a large portion of the world.

I first was exposed to the minutiae of my dad struggling to grapple with the love he had for his first daughter, the heroin she was addicted to, and the new family he had just started after I was born. I have very few, yet incredibly vivid memories of her, my half-sister. Through a number of holiday dinners, birthdays, and occasional stints under our roof, she has been a sporadic part of my life. And unlike my two younger sisters, I was old enough to recognize the toll it took on my dad, and the struggle he endured to support her.

The script focuses on the father, Harvey Stetland, viewed through the eyes of his granddaughter, nine-year-old Jessica (who is the exact age I was the last time I saw my sister). While most of the dialogue and series of events is fictional, the opening scene of the script is not. I was there in my dad’s red Ford F-150 when he and my stepsister got into an enormous argument on the side of the road that marked the end of her time with us. It’s the most vivid memory I have, and the one that breathed life into the screenplay.

Aiden Pesesko, Writer/Director of Maraschino Cherries:

Where your donations go:

Afterword

Thank you so much!

We've been hard at work for years honing our craft. And we're excited to bring you along with us as we expand our crew and compassion for each talented individual dedicated to bringing this project to life.

This project means a lot to me. But what matters most is that we spread an important message and push each other to new artistic heights.

-Aiden Pesesko

Instagram:

maraschinocherriesfilmofficial

Website Link! - See What We've Already Accomplished Together

theblackdogstudios

Meet The Crew:

Aiden Pesesko - Writer/Director

Julie Copenhaver - Lead Producer

Tesher Rudnick - Cinematographer